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iTunes Music Review - With Teeth

In the sprawling post-A&R rock and roll world, there are two camps: the Beatles and the Stones. The Beatles are the artists that like to explore, evolve, and change styles. The Stones are the artists that subscribe to the philosophy that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," and stick to the same formula that got them into the spotlight in the first place.

This is not to say that either grouping carries a negative connotation, but it can be frustrating when certain artists fall into the latter category. Trent Reznor's latest offering as Nine Inch Nails, With Teeth is a sorry testament to just that.

Having grown in leaps and bounds between his first two full albums, Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral and bridging a gulf separating industrial rock, 80s new wave, and angst-driven punk for a wide audience, 1999's excessive double album "The Fragile" promised evolution, but delivered a boring retread of previous efforts.

With Teeth is essentially more of the same, only six years later, which is plenty of time to have purchased a new set of electronic instrument sounds and come up with some new ideas. Furthermore, it is a bit difficult to stomach adolescent moaning about sour romance from a man of Reznor's age and ritzy lifestyle, more so when he appears to take such joy in screaming four-letter words as if he were an unsupervised troublemaker of a child just given access to a bullhorn.

Despite these major caveats, the record does boast a couple catchy tracks and solid production (especially on the 5.1 mix available on the DualDisc release); the final few tracks manage to hint at a subdued style uncharacteristic for Nine Inch Nails that would have been interesting had the rest of the album not been a chore to listen to.